And So it begins, our annual trip to Louisville Kentucky for the SkillsUSA Nationals competitions. This year we will be competing in 4 competition. Web Design, Game Design, 3D Animation, and Pin Design.

Check the blog on the daily to see updates. The updates will be added following each day.

What an absolutely awesome trip! We walked away with memories, experience, and MEDALS!!

Web = GOLD 1st!

3D = GOLD 1st!

Game = 9th

Pin = 24th

Ryan, Alex and I get to talk crap for the next school year. Can’t take away that I was first, first…

Laeticcia and Soren not only placed on the podium for the first time in CAWD history, but they killed it with 1st.

Friday

Before I get into the results, check out this SWEET movie theater we found. Super cheap, reclining chairs, captain underpants, what more can you ask for?

I can’t even put into words how proud I am of all these kids. Check out some of the celebrations below. Check at the top of the post to see exactly how we did. Again, insanely proud. And look how stoked soren is.

Thursday

Thursday was a full swing of competition. And that hair??? Check out that dude’s hair. I miss my long hair already.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we woke up bright and early to get the web kids to their contest. They were so focused they barely realized I checked on them multiple times.

While the web team was competing, I was able to go check out one of my favorite competitions. These sculptures are insane.

Once the web team was done, we all went out for some dinner. Classic millennial dinner (phones out) but still a very funny time. Cough cough Nate…

After dinner, “we” checked out the pool. We meaning me. I had the entire pool for roughly an hour. Now that was relaxing.

Monday / Tuesday

Following our arrival, a few of us decided to take a nice walk to the river a couple blocks away. Our goal was pizza, but someone may have brought us a couple blocks in the wrong direction….

Bright and early Tuesday morning we drove the bus the back entrance and unpacked our equipment. As you can see, Laeticcia and Soren are really contemplating the events the day may bring.

Having some down time in between orientations and seminars, we were able to walk to miles and miles of booths and competitions. But this car. That green. Can’t you see this as the CAWD car?

What is a Louisville Skills trip without the Chinese food? Been waiting for this all year. Seriously…

Opening ceremonies went smooth. You can see the happiness on everyone’s face. I mean, look at Witham, doesn’t he just look so happy?

Wait for it.

We have Mike Rowe like the last few years, then we had a new and truely exciting new speaker “sunshine” from Deadliest Catch. The moral of his speech, never give up and be yourself. Very inspiring.

Tomorrow we have the start of our Web Competition and all the set ups. Should be another full day of running around, eating quality food, and some good laughs. See you all tomorrow!

Sunday / Monday

We had all our gear packed. Yes, CAWD took one entire section of the bus’s storage. We are that important.

Everyone chose their seats. Everyone got 2 seats to themselves.

The music was flowing. Took seconds to start jamming out the ukulele.

Last but certainly not least, Laeticcia came rushing to the bus. She made it just in time before the bus went squealing off.

We took a whole CTE group photo. Look at the happiness.

We arrived and it looks the same as we were packing… Mayhem.

But look at this beautiful weather! Same hotel as last time. With….

FREE COFFEE AND COCO!!!!

So far the trip has been smooth. Knock on wood. Let’s hope for the amazing weather and great time. Wish us luck!

The 2017 Vermont SkillsUSA results are in! And CAWD killed it! This year, CAWD participated in 4 competitions included Web Design, 3d Visualization and Animation, Pin Design, and Interactive Application and Video Game Design. This is the second year we have participated in Game Design and it was a very good year. We had contestants from Stafford tech join us as well.

Chris Tall (CTall) was a Cawd student from Underhill / MMU from 2009 – 2011. He just reached out to give us an update on his career in Japan, and I wanted to share his story with you.

For a long time CTall had an interest in Japan and Japanese culture. While in Cawd some of his classmates made a posterized version of him with one of his quotes as so much of what he was into was Japanese.

This image you see on the right (Where is my capital “I” in “It’s” Rathburn?) is a perfect encapsulation of what was going to happen next with CTall.

“It is currently Japan’s largest, specialized training college having schools in front of each terminal station in TokyoShinjyuku, Osaka, and Nagoya. We provide a cutting-edge learning environment with diverse cooperation with world leading companies including Nintendo and Microsoft.”

(Don’t forget that this is a student that grew up on a dirt road in Underhill Vermont.)

He is currently coding the AI system for the company’s strategy role-playing games, and he finds it very rewarding work.

What does this mean for you?

I thought the story of CTall was something worth sharing, and a powerful message to all of us that aren’t finding that life at home, in Chittenden County, in Vermont, has anything for them. You can do anything you want to do in life as long as you work hard, persevere, and push yourself. You aren’t limited to the hand you were dealt in life.

“Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain. You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today. And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.”

Can you work harder? Can you engage more? Are you actively working to shape the future you want?